22 December 2013
AGU Fall Meeting 2013: Photo Wrap-Up
Posted by Jessica Ball
As is traditional, I ended this year’s Fall Meeting by contracting a cold and developing an ear infection by the time I made it back to DC. (In fact, I can only think of one year where something like this didn’t happen, and I got sick over Christmas anyway.) Naturally this meant I was in no mood to do any sort of wrap-up post, and today is the first day I’ve actually felt like sitting upright for any amount of time, so I’m making up for it now.
On my last full day in San Francisco, I took a break from talks and workshops and posters and went out into town to see the Ferry Building and the Embarcadero, a spot I haven’t been to yet in my ramblings around the city.
Union Square may be known for high-end shopping, but I love to spend time in markets like this. Mostly eating my way through them.
For example, the Ferry Building is full of purveyors of all kinds of cured meats, often with their own clever merchandising:
Being a good Italian, I had to sample some prosciutto from Boccalone:
But it was much too nice a day to spend inside, even with the ubiquitous San Francisco fog, so I walked along the Embarcadero for a bit and visited some of the piers.
A little bit beyond the Ferry Building is the new(ish) site of the Exploratorium. For a scientist, this place is awesome. I played with magnetic fluid:
Made an aurora with a plasma generator:
Created some sand dunes with confined aeolian processes and watched some mass wasting:
And my personal favorite, watched ionizing radiation in a cloud chamber (a sealed environment supersaturated with alcohol vapor where you can see charged particles passing through and ionizing the vapor):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P0bqj3d6M4&feature=youtu.be
But, of course, Fall Meeting is about science and networking. And I had a lovely time doing both, overwhelmed as always by the staggering amount of expertise and innovation on display every year. To finish up, here’s a sampling of sights from around the meeting:
Waiting for Olympia Snowe’s talk in one of the big lecture halls. It was actually a little weird – I went all the way to San Francisco just to see the Capitol!
Posters everywhere in Moscone South
Some of the many vendors and exhibitors in Moscone North
The best footwear I have ever seen at a conference. Person who wore these, I salute you – you are my new conference hero.
The view from a very comfy chair at the “Ask An Expert” Booth (thanks to AGU for hosting and to everyone who stopped by to chat!
I’m glad I had a chance to attend again this year, meet so many great people and listen to some really fascinating science. Happy Holidays to everyone!
Jessica Ball is a volcanologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, researching volcanic hydrothermal systems and stability, and doing science communication for the California Volcano Observatory. She previously worked at the Geological Society of America's Washington DC Policy Office, learning about the intersection of Earth science and legislative affairs. Her Mendenhall postdoc and PhD focused on how water affects the stability of volcanoes, and involved both field investigations and numerical modeling applications. Her blogging covers a range of topics, from her experiences in academic geosciences to science outreach and communication to her field and lab work in volcanology.